Beyond all the clichés about croc hunters, Foster’s Lager, and shrimp on the barbie, Australia is becoming known for its burgeoning classical-music scene—one that, fittingly, takes a freer, less traditional approach to the repertoire. With a focus on Oz, this year’s MusicFest Vancouver promises to give local audiences a good taste of what sets the scene apart.

“Australians are more likely to take some risks and try to engage some younger audiences,” explains cellist Josephine Vains, speaking from her home in Melbourne, where her Freshwater Trio typifies the innovative approach to the art form. “Particularly in the Melbourne scene, there’s a lot of reinvention, and some of the really well-known artists overseas from Australia just do things differently. They don’t care so much about sticking to the rules.”

It was partly that attitude (not to mention a boyfriend and family) that drew Vains back to her home country after studying and working in Europe for five years. Soon after her return, in 2006, she launched Freshwater, with old friend Zoë Black on violin and Eidit Golder on piano.

Because piano trios rely so much on communication, Vains knew it was important to find the right people.

“Zoë and I come from a very similar European style of training, with a similar way of looking at sound production. Now we don’t even need to talk to each other about bowing and fingering,” she says. “Why it feels good is that we don’t need to do all the arguing and talking, which has happened to me in other groups.”

Building a bold repertoire that includes collaborations with other Aussie artists and touring through the regions of Queensland and Victoria, Freshwater has steadily built a loyal audience that skews younger than most. MusicFest program director George Laverock reportedly heard them on a scouting trip to Oz last winter and immediately knew he wanted to bring them to Vancouver. It will be part of the trio’s first tour abroad.

Freshwater will perform two concerts here. The first, on August 10 at Christ Church Cathedral, puts a bit of a twist on core piano-trio repertoire. The trio will take on Franz Joseph Haydn’s light-as-air Trio in C Major, Hob XV: 27 and two Frédéric Chopin preludes, one arranged by another festival guest, Aussie composer and pianist Joe Chindamo, who also happens to be Black’s partner.

“We don’t just always stick to the same canon of repertoire,” Vains says. “We do a lot of commissioning and arranging. In the Chopin by Joe Chindamo, he’s given it a tango feel; you don’t hear it and say, ”˜That’s Chopin adulterated by a jazz pianist!’ He’s done some [Robert] Schumann for us as well, in this beautiful, dreamy arrangement.”

In a show the next night at the cathedral, they’ll step a little further outside the box, pairing Anton Dvořák and Maurice Ravel with a new commission by Canuck composer Stephen Chatman, sung by boffo local baritone Tyler Duncan. That fresh Aussie attitude should click well with its Canadian counterpart.